The new dependency decree of the Government of the Canary Islands is not convincing. Since the Ministry of Social Protection prepared the first version, a rain of criticism has fallen, forcing it to back down and abandon its efforts to ensure that applications would be rejected after six months if the administration did not respond to the candidates. However, the text, available on the Transparency portal, contains questions that have raised alarm bells in the social work colleges of both provinces and among public professionals who work in this service. One of the problems they criticize is that the social balance sheet is eliminated or that the door is opened to “privatization” and “professional intrusion.”
Yolanda Cívicos, social worker and spokesperson for the Committee of Dependencies Companies of Las Palmas, was one of the first to warn of the shortcomings of this decree. According to her, “the Ministry intends (after eliminating the sorting due to the pressure exerted) to eliminate the greatest number of optional orders to optimize as much as possible the scarce human resources existing in the Ministry”. However, it is understood that “shortening administrative times in this way will mean, among other problems: lack of training, double procedures at home at the same time, errors in the assessments that can exclude the user from the system leaving him without or with a lower grade than the corresponding one and, therefore, a PIA (Individualized Attention Program) proposal that does not comply with the real needs of the candidate.
The Tenerife College of Social Work has recently launched a campaign in which it invites us to think about what would happen if Education announced that, in the next academic year, it would welcome people with a high school diploma and a “vocation for childhood” in place of teachers. They thus refer to “the importance of maintaining the powers and responsibilities of social workers clearly defined in the decree”. “Diluting or removing these mentions would not only open the door to professional intrusion, but could also seriously compromise the quality of the service. “Social work is a discipline that requires specific training and practice based on ethical and deontological principles that guarantee respectful and appropriate care for people in vulnerable situations”, maintains this school.
Cívicos had already explained that the text opens the door to professionals outside this service to carry out the assessments and procedures that require a person to obtain or not this right. One of the novelties is the creation of a Technical Commission for the Assessment of Dependencies, a newly created body that will be made up of a multidisciplinary team. The College of Social Work of Tenerife complains of not knowing which professionals will compose it or their functions.
Professionals warn that, under the pretext of “administrative simplification”, the government of the Canary Islands intends to carry out a “complete modification” of the entire structure, operation and criteria of the Agency in the Islands. And they highlight one point: “the mentions attributed to social workers are considerably reduced.”
Elimination of the social balance sheet and outsourcing
One of the points that has generated the greatest rejection among experts is precisely the elimination of the social balance sheet. Today, it is replaced by the environmental one “which generates many doubts about the content and the professionals who will carry it out”. A report, recalls the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which involves an analysis, evaluation and diagnosis of the person. “If this is carried out by any professional profile, what are the guarantees of the procedure?
Yolanda Cívicos emphasizes that this report is a “fundamental” tool with which the social worker studies and evaluates the situation of each person, family or group in order to determine the most appropriate action. “We could say that what they intend with the new decree is to fundamentally eliminate the individualized diagnosis and with it the possibility of recording a specific and very particular social, labor, family and economic situation (since the cases are multiple). They also do it to be able to justify not addressing individual situations, but they will do it in the same way for everyone,” he explains.
The new text specifies that “in general, the assessment will be carried out in the usual environment of the interested party by professionals with a socio-health profile from the Administration of the Community of the Canary Islands or any other public entity or body that, by virtue of the mechanisms of collaboration and inter-administrative cooperation, could be entrusted with such a function, and it may be determined, when the competent body deems it appropriate, that the assessment be carried out in a place other than the usual environment of the interested party. The spokesperson for the Las Palmas Works Council considers that this paragraph leaves the door open to personnel who are not from the Dependency service to carry out assessments and individualized care programs. This is an issue that, in his opinion, does not ensure legal certainty, equality or impartiality.
The Tenerife College of Social Work shares this point of view and points out that one of the most controversial points of the new decree is the opening to the outsourcing of services, which it describes as “a clear risk of privatization of the dependency system”. Professionals warn that the possibility of “delegating key functions to private entities or other public systems could significantly deteriorate the quality of the assessments and services offered to dependent people”.
Professional associations united in allegations
The Official College of Social Work of Las Palmas, for its part, indicated that it “feels great concern and concern about the process and methods that are being used to prepare the draft decree that will regulate the future procedure for the recognition of dependency situations.” Considers that the text “still leaves many questions that cannot be left to later regulations or internal instructions, in order to avoid interpretations, conflicts and problems in the execution of the procedure, as is currently the case. This will directly translate into the care of people in dependency situations.
Likewise, this school highlights that the situation of waiting lists in the Canary Islands “is unsustainable” (more than 6,000 people are still waiting for this right despite its recognition and only 16% of the potentially dependent population receives help). For this reason, it believes that it is necessary to seek “formulas that allow the rationalisation of the procedure to shorten the deadlines”. However, the College specifies that “this must never be done at the cost of compromising the quality and integrity of both the assessment procedure and the recognition of the rights of people in a situation of dependency. The opposite directly attacks a fundamental pillar of public administration, which is to establish procedures to guarantee the population’s access to the benefits and services to which they are entitled. “Not everything goes well, and the end cannot justify the means to shorten the deadlines and rationalise the procedures.”
The Department of Social Protection of the Government of the Canary Islands explained a few weeks ago that this new regulation that will regulate the dependency system in the Canary Islands “will count on 80% of the contributions paid by groups, administrations and entities of the public sector.” information period and will allow to shorten the time needed for a citizen to receive the help associated with the dependency law. A figure that is not shared by the Las Palmas school, which affirms that only 46.38% of the allegations presented by entities and individuals have been taken into account, 48.19% have not been taken into account and 5.42% have not been taken into account. % have been partially supported.
On August 14, the Minister of Social Protection, Candelaria Delgado, presented this text to the General Council of Social Services and defended that the idea is to move from a two-phase system to a single-phase system, and that the decree “accelerates and reduces processing times.” processing within six months, as provided for by state law.
The professional associations of both provinces are requesting the convening of dialogue tables to address this decree with the Ministry of Social Security. “The need for these working groups is to ensure that the decree is not the result of a purely administrative vision, but rather that it integrates the specialized knowledge and experiences of those directly affected,” says the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
